Plojhar

Organic products and their distribution

Mr. Bohumil, the current managing director and owner of the company, made Plojhar an ecologically oriented company. He has always been close to ecology, but combining this approach with business has not always been easy. 

The first idea he came up with as an innovator was to move their own car transport, which the company still has today, in a greener direction. At the time, they were offering compressed natural gas, CNG, cars. Although this mode of transport was not yet fully established in the country at that time, Mr. Plojhar decided to convert all transport to CNG. Due to the lower withholding tax compared to petrol or diesel, the ecological and especially the economic outlook of this change was very positive at that time. Even though the conversion of special cars to CNG was higher and the coverage of filling stations was not ideal, the lower fuel price enabled the company to be in the black in terms of transportation costs over a period of 4-5 years. Over time, Plojhar also procured its own filling station and now they are compressing the natural gas themselves which they then inject into the cars.  

The company’s second eco-friendly venture is roofs covered with photovoltaic panels. The first solar power plant was built by the Plojhar family in 2016 and currently has a capacity of 90 KW. The company prides itself on the quality and sustainability of its products and is certified by the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council), an international certification mark that guarantees consumers that the material the company processes comes from sustainably managed forests. Most of the materials Plojhar works with have this certification. Plojhar recycles all the paper it uses in the production of carton packaging or paper products to the maximum, and the cardboard the company uses for carton packaging, for example, is also sustainable; it can be recycled up to 22 times. Thus, the life cycle of Plojhar products does not end with throwing them in the bin. Plojhar chooses a more sustainable path with every decision, big or small. They have also opted for more sustainable materials when expanding the production area and, for example, have wooden structures instead of steel trusses in the warehouse halls. In addition, some of the walls of the halls are not made of brick but are made of pressed straw boards. This confirms their beliefs and gives space to alternative materials, as opposed to conventional concrete and iron.

The fact that Plojhar is not a large corporation played a role in all decisions. Thus, the company could not afford to make ecological decisions that would not be economically beneficial. Another element that influenced decision-making was the amount of bureaucracy associated with non-routine business processes. Both Plojhar’s representatives – father and son – agree that bureaucracy is a major obstacle for entrepreneurs, and not only in the area of environmental processes in companies. They describe the bureaucratic procedures in the Czech Republic as ”the biggest obstacle to the economy in our country” and both confirm that it is the bureaucracy that they have struggled with the most in the course of their business. Mr. Bohumil is responsible for everything related to ecological technologies or practices. He proposed the decisions on greener practices himself and since they all corresponded with the overall company setup, their implementation was without any problems from the decision-making point of view. This is also due to the fact that both generations share green values and see sustainability as an important part of their work.

The biggest positive is the economic perspective. Plojhar was one of the first companies to introduce CNG transport. Today, they own four trucks, one van, and four CNG passenger vehicles, which cover up to 95% of their traffic. Thus, they are significantly relieving the environment from combustion gases and ash and other toxic gases. From an economic point of view, for example, the trucks save between half and 1/3 of the annual operating costs, i.e. between 200-300.000 CZK (equiv. to 7.800 – 11.800 EUR) per year per vehicle. The aforementioned in-house CNG filling station helps significantly in this respect. The other vehicles that the Plojhars are now planning to order will also run on CNG for even greater economic and environmental benefits. In the future, Plojhar plans to introduce other innovative technologies that contribute to improving the environment and remain a green company in the long term. All the environmental practices in place are considered beneficial by both Plojhar representatives.